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Friday, October 28, 2011

dried apples

My sister gave me this book as an early Christmas present. We keep secrets and gifts like that.

It has some fun recipes for jellies, jams, sauces, chutneys, etc as well as some information on very traditional preserving methods like drying and smoking. These dried apples looked delish and since apples are as cheap as they are local right now, I decided to try it first.

They were so so good. We gobbled them up. They were very much like the expensive dried apples we sometimes buy the kids for travel snacks. Only, I never eat those because I want to 'save them for the kids.'

This is more a method than a recipe, so I don't feel bad sharing all the secrets from this page, because they aren't secrets. Ladies have been preserving fruits for eons with this method. Some men maybe too, but l feel ok saying ladies... Regardless, the apples get washed and sliced thinly. I used several varieties of apples and they all had good results.

Then they get cored and dipped in 2 c water, 2 c lemon juice.

Lay them on a drying rack and bake/dry for 10ish hours at 175 degrees. I tasted as we went and did enjoy them at all leathery in-between states.

When they are removed from the oven, they need to sit a hour or two on the counter to cool. They do a crazy crisping up at this point as well. It was as though all the sweetness of the apples was condensed in the smaller space. They made a great snack for sitting on the counter to grab whenever you needed a little something. It was better than grabbing a handful of chocolate chips every time I walked through the kitchen. Why are those blasted chips even in my pantry?

We liked them so much, we packaged some up for Bee's teacher.

Along with a water bottle, it made a fun 'first day of teacher conferences' snack. There's no shame in buttering up the teacher before conferences!